Raja
Ram Mohan Roy was born on 22nd May, 1772, in Radhanagar, district Burdwan, West
Bengal. He was an educational reformer, a socialist reformer and a religious
reformer too. He challenged and transformed Hindu culture on his own new lines.
He is called ‘The father of Modern India’ and maker of Modern India too. He is
also famously known as "Father of the Bengal Renaissance." His domain
and his fields include social work, religion, public administration and
politics. He was a philosopher, a thinker and a strategist. He advocated
education especially Medicine, Science and Technology and English. He founded
Brahmo Samaj and seriously advocated abolition of Sati. Through Brahmo Samaj,
he wanted to expose the religious hypocrisies. He fought for the rights of
women. He did not believe in Idol Worship and all those rituals which are
superstitious and doesn’t have any scientific base or proof.
Childhood
Raja
Ram Mohan Roy was born, in a high ranking Brahmin family, to Ramkanto Roy and
Tarinidevi. He hails from a background that has got a lot of diversity. His
father is a Vaishnavite and mother a Shaivite, which was an unusual marriage at
that time. His father was an orthodox Hindu Brahmin.
Education
He
was sent to Patna for higher studies and by the age of fifteen, Raja Ram Mohan
Roy had learnt Bangla, Persian, Arabic and Sanskrit. After his marriage, he
went to Varanasi in order to gain knowledge about Vedas, Upanishads and Hindu
Philosophy.
Career
and social reform activities
He
started working as a moneylender in 1803 and left this job in 1809 and started
serving Revenue Department of the East India Company. In 1814, Raja Ram Mohan
Roy formed ‘Atmiya Sabha’ for amending laws of the society through social and
religious reforms. The sabha’s work was to fight for the rights of women like
banning ‘Sati’ and polygamy and welcoming remarriage and the right for women to
hold property. He also supported English, which he considered to be superior
from our education system. He wanted women to study at par with men. He was
strongly in favour of women education. For this matter, he even founded English
school.
During
this time, he founded ‘Brahmo Samaj’ to bring socio-religiou reforms in India
during Bengal Renaissance of 19th century and early 20th century.
At
the end
He
travelled to the United Kingdom as an ambassador of Mughal emperor and after
that he died on September 27, 1833 due to meningitis.
